23 months old!

How is it possible for Sam to be 2 next month?!  She is in such a fun, noisy, busy stage right now:)

Howie took her to the dr 2 weeks ago to get some new medicine for her eczema and she weighed in at 26 lbs!  She has also finally gotten some more teeth, in addition to the 4 molars and 1 lower front tooth, the other lower front tooth and two front top teeth have broken through.  Also she is officially off breastmilk, she weaned herself around 21 months and just yesterday she drank the last bag of frozen milk.  Almost made it to 2 years but she's doing fine with whole milk.

One of her favorite things to do now is read books, I'm so glad she loves them just like me!

She loves pointing out animals and babies in the books and as soon as you finish one she runs to get another one.

We also made our first trip to the beach this year and it was so much fun!  Long gone are the days of going to the beach to relax but I wouldn't have it any other way, so much more fun!  We went to St. Augustine beach where you can drive your car on the beach and it was so convenient.  

We already have 3 trips to the beach on the calendar in the next couple of months and I'm sure we'll make some impromptu trips as well.  I have to make sure and stay diligent about putting sunscreen on Sam since she has her daddy's skin tone she tans super easy even with sunscreen on.  

She has also moved up to the toddler story time at the library.  It's on Tuesday mornings and since I've recently taken Tuesdays off we should hopefully go quite a bit.  We've only been once so far but she seemed to enjoy it.

And she has moved up to the toddler class at church which means I've started teaching there instead of the nursery.  I've only taught one Sunday so far but I really enjoyed it! 

We've gotten into a pretty good routine at home where she gets to play outside a lot!  We usually walk to the park at least once a day and she loves to play on the back patio.  We're working on getting some grass back there so she can enjoy the yard too!

We just sent out invitations for her 2nd birthday party, just planning a small, family party with a Veggie Tales theme!  We're excited to have some family from back home coming down for it too!

Organizing Ideas!

Let's talk about one of my favorite things to do....Organize!

Our dilemma is we live in a 2 bed, 1 bath, 950 sq foot (no garage, very small attic) town home.  I.e. Little to no extra storage space:(

Every few months both Howie and I get in the mood to go through things, throw stuff out, and reorganize!  I've been on Pinterest the last week trying to get some new ideas for small spaces.  And unfortunately I didn't take before pictures but here are some after pictures.

Our goal here was getting stuff off the floor.  The three buckets on the bottom shelf were on the floor along with the broom and swiffer.  And the apron hook is new too.  This should work out really well because it means Howie won't need to move anything except the table to get the motorcycle through the house.  

There's more to this than meets the eye, I cleared off the top of the refrigerator but that entailed going through the cabinets to make more room (it's a never ending cycle!)

This was my favorite thing to go through, I've been wanting to for so long!  First I used an idea off of Pinterest which was to fold matching sheets/pillowcases and store them in one of the pillowcases.  You can't really tell in the picture but that's what's on the top shelf.  Next I folded and sorted all the towels, hand towels, wash clothes etc.  The last thing was to sort through all the random stuff that was piled on the floor.  So I used some baskets from Sam's room that weren't  being used and put Kona's stuff in one, and our different overstock things in the other two.  At work when there's a really good deal on toothpaste, body wash etc I try to stock up so we never have to pay full price for those things, the trade off being it takes up valuable space.

The last thing we tackled was the bathroom.  Our main issue is the only storage space there is a medicine cabinet, when we first moved in we bought this extra storage cabinet.  It works really well but it had gotten extremely messy!  There were so many bottles on the the very top it was ridiculous.  So we went through everything and threw a lot away!  I also wanted to try hanging stuff on the wall for even more space, not sure if I really like how the mirror and hairbrush look but we'll see.

Our last couple of projects include both of our bedrooms and the bar in the kitchen.  Hopefully we stay motivated to get it all done!

Any other ideas for small spaces?? Let me know!

The perfect day

Yesterday we celebrated 4 years of marriage and it might have been the most perfect day you could have!  

I took off work for a long weekend so we decided to spend all day Thursday with Sam since we are leaving her overnight with nana and papa Friday night.

So we headed to the zoo even though the forecast showed rain all day.  It only sprinkled a little in the beginning and the rest of the morning was nice and cool!  Sam loved carrying the umbrella around.

And playing in the water

We left the zoo around 12 and headed to lunch at our favorite Chinese buffet.  After getting Sam down for her nap around 1 she slept until 430!  I was having a major sweet tooth after she woke up so we headed to publix to get some dessert and ended up getting dinner from there too.  

We got home and decided we would just stay home for the evening so we went out to the back porch and played with Sam and Kona.  Sam practiced her batting skills and for a 2 year old I was impressed!  Had a little picnic outside then headed in to make cookies!  Sam loves to help bake although after she got her beater she had to take a book break

After baking we settled in on the sofa bed and watched The Land Before Time with Sam, which she loved.

Sam went to bed and we decided to watch another movie, we had a hard time choosing one but I had been wanting to see The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.  Quite a sad movie but very good.

Today we leave Sam overnight for the first time and head to Amelia Island to celebrate just the two of us.

And that was our perfect day.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Our marriage would not be what it is today without the Lord.  I am so thankful for Howie and Sam more so than I could ever share in words.